Hawking Calls for a Return to the Moon, Says Earth's Clock Is Running Out

The human race is doomed unless we colonize the Moon and Mars, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking warned Wednesday.

"I am convinced that humans need to leave earth. The Earth is becoming too small for us, our physical resources are being drained at an alarming rate," he said during an improvised speech at the Starmus science festival in Tronheim, Norway.

"We have given our planet the disastrous gift of climate change, rising temperatures, the reducing of polar ice caps, deforestation and decimation of animal species. When we have reached similar crisis in or history there has usually been somewhere else to colonize. Columbus did it in 1492 when he discovered the new world. But now there is no new world. No Eutopia around the corner. We are running out of space and the only places to go to are other worlds."

Hawking also told the audience Earth would eventually be struck by an asteroid and called for countries to construct a moon colony within 30 years.

"This is not science fiction it is guaranteed by the laws of physics and probability," he said. "To stay risks being annihilated. Spreading out into space will completely change the future of humanity. It may also determine whether we have any future at all."

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